Ever heard of Hong Kong's famous Tuen Mun yoghurt or the blue cheese of Leung Shuen Wan? We're betting you haven't, if only because neither happens to exist. And sad as that may be to consider, it's hardly surprising given the appalling state of the Hong Kong dairy industry. There is probably not another place with a lower cow-to-human ratio outside the Maldives, which at least has nice beaches.

So - yes - we know that you're busy studying Cantonese and enjoying the local nightlife and Hong Kong's amazing cuisine, but consider this elementary Cantonese lesson a critical reminder: there is more to life than dim sum and more than three basic food groups in the health pyramid. Useful to bear in mind if you don't want to end up like the poor soul in our dialogue for today....

I really enjoy your Cantonese lessons. However, on the point raised in this article and lesson, I want to make offer a correction on a widely purported myth that dairy (or calcium) intake leads to stronger bones. On a worldwide level, this is simply not true, as studies have shown that countries with the lowest calcium intake per capita suffer the fewest bone fracture rates while countries with the highest calcium intake suffer from the most. Particularly, a study by Walter Willet included Hong Kong as a data point.

For information on a much-needed counterpart argument to the dairy debate please see: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mark-hyman/dairy-free-dairy-6-reason_b_558876.html. While it is a consumer article, it still cites very important studies. While the rise in bone fractures in HK over the last couple decades is not officially explained, my amateurish guess is that it is due more to the rise in consumption of red meat, as is the case in many urban areas across the globe, and perhaps alcohol as well.